Why Dats Why

[Opie 308]

OK so I understand the puck came up on edge on him, but it seems like Dats is reluctant to use his moves in the shootout.

Is he doing that to keep goalies off guard?

Last night he just went backhand forehand, and not as well as Huds did it.

I know we all come to expect a lot of dats especially when he is in open ice, and by no means am I saying he had a bad game, but why on the shootout attempt does he not undress a relatively slower moving goalie.

I mean Z may use that Forsberg move a little too much, but the difference is if the puck stays on his stick he scores every time, he just needs to keep the puck on the toe of his stick.

Dats has moves upon moves that no one has seen, why do such an elementary move, well for him at least?

Any thoughts?

[Heaton 1]

Goalies know he has moves, so sometimes the best move is not making a move at all.

[GoCryWolfe 0]

Dude, it was his first breakaway shot, really.

The puck rolled on him, it happens. Dats has moves and will use them, but there's no reason to do it every single chance he gets. He looked like himself last night IMO. Lots of chances and slick.

It's okay to mix it up.

[johnnyoski 0]

This would be a better question for Perry. That looked like the most lackluster, could care less, shootout attempt I've ever seen.

[toby91_ca 620]

You need to change things up a little or goalies will start figuring you out.

I woudn't get too worked up about him not scoring on shootouts, as a general rule, more often than not, the goalie is going to stop you.

Think about baseball....the best hitters in the game really only get a hit 30% of the time. If you get a hit 1 out of every 3 chances at bat, you are doing better than almost everyone else.

[Opie 308]

I understand he has to mix it up, it just seems to me over the past year he is more inclined to use those moves on a breakaway as opposed to a shoot out situation.

Again I am by no means saying he is a bad player or anything remotely negative, I was just wondering if there was more to it than just keeping goalies off guard.

It didn't even look like he deked once, but I guess maybe it is because he needs to mix it up like you said. But I would think the first one of the season he would want to really stick it home to get the team on a good start.

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

Goalies know he has moves, so sometimes the best move is not making a move at all.

You need to change things up a little or goalies will start figuring you out.

My thoughts exactly. If Dats deked every time it wouldn't keep goalies honest on his attempts.

[irishtemper14+25 11]

lets just let dats be dats, i love not knowing what hes gonna do until he does it

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

Sidenote: Just because he's buried his share of deke attempts in the shootout, doesn't mean he hasn't had failed attempts as well. It's just easier to remember the ones that went in.

[Opie 308]

Oh and I agree NFM I just wanted to discuss what people thought about it.

I figured it would be a 5 post thread and done. I guess I should have picked a better title. I still think he is the deadliest open ice player in the game right now. Just wanted to discuss the decision for the shot. I think had the puck stayed flat he may have had a more productive shot.

Another thing I noticed was Hasek just flat out going after the puck in the shoot out, especially the third shooter. That and the Duck players seem to go in with a lot less speed. That may be because they are a slower bigger team but they all seem to glide into the zone and wait and wait, like they thought they could be more patient than Hasek and he would make a mistake.

[vangvace 12]

Through the game and (prob) scouting report, he might not have felt that he needed to do anything fancy to beat the goalie.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

No big deal with what he did. I would have also liked to see him deke, but it's not like he tried a slapshot or a wraparound. Now that would have been interesting to see.

[Opie 308]

I think a slapper like Rolston used last year would have had Ilya crapping his pants and the rest of us laughing our fool heads off if it worked!!

[Datsyukian Geek 2]

Mixing the straightforward approach with the finesse style of goal-scoring keeps the goalie honest. Better to keep him guessing all game long than to be consistent and give the keep a chance to catch on to your patterns.

[WhiteLightning91 105]

It was a good decision by Datysuk. If the puck doesn't roll on him, he scores because he went from his backhand to his forehand in such a quick fashion that he had the a big area of the net open to shoot at. The puck rolled on him so he wasnt able to get any lift on the puck. Believe me, if the puck doesn't roll, he would've scored because Ilya was not fast enough to react to the quick backhand to forehand maneuver.

Off Topic -- Was anyone else screaming at their TV's last night during the shootout because of the asinine camera angle VS. had for the shootout? You couldn't even see the shot take place until the very last second.

[Opie 308]

I am not a big fan of Versus but because they actually put hockey on TV I love them for it, but they are a young network and are trying new things, I think every possible thing has been done with camera angles and they need to stick to the basics. I say never ever should a replay angle be a better overall picture of the ice and the action. It was last night. Live action should IMO be filmed at a wide angle so that all of the little things can be seen and then the replay should be more focused so you can then see a close up on the players skates as they make a move etc.